Benefits For Kids Training In Martial Arts

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1. Fitness Made Fun

We know that kids are spending more time online or in front of screens than ever before, and getting enough physical activity can be an issue. Enrolling your little one in a martial arts class is a great way to combine physical exercise and fun in one. Martial arts will help tone and strengthen muscles, enhance speed and agility, increase endurance, flexibility, coordination and balance, and enhance your child’s physical development in many ways.

2. Boost Confidence

Like many other sports, getting involved in martial arts will also have a positive impact on your child’s mental well being. Participating in a physically and mentally demanding activity like martial arts can help boost your kid’s confidence level and teach them self-discipline and self-reliance. In an culture that tends to emphasize superficial appearances over substance, martial arts can help your child become more grounded and centered.

3. Learn Self-Defense

There’s a different kind of confidence that comes with knowing you can defend yourself. I want to equip them with the strength and skills to protect themselves. Once your child learns self-defense techniques they’ll feel more secure, more confident, and so will you!

4. Build Social Skills

Neighbourhood martial arts classes typically bring together kids from all different backgrounds, and learning how to cooperate and work with a diverse group of peers can help your child develop empathy and improve their social skills. In addition to fostering understanding and acceptance of others, martial arts education also focuses on teaching discipline and respect for others.

5. Healthy Competition

Martial arts training will help your child push him or herself to be the best they can be. Earning those belts (or certificates, trophies, etc.) is a potent motivator to keep working hard and improving their skills. And if your child advances to the point of entering competitions, they’ll learn to play by the rules as well as how to win or lose with grace.

6. Burn Extra Energy

One final benefit of martial arts training? Far from encouraging aggression, martial arts classes provide a controlled and healthy environment for growing children to burn off some of that excess energy and help them feel more focused. If you have an active, spirited child, you know exactly what I’m talking about!

If you would like more information about our Martial Arts Program don’t hesitate to call us or text at 604-800-5248.

Or get your child started today with our FREE Trial Class

 

If you live in Richmond, BC Canada click here: http://www.kidskaraterichmond.com

 

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7 Secrets you may not know about Kids Martial Arts

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Secret #1 They’re going to get physically fit and active every time they come to class. Our warm ups are very intense when it comes to Pushups, Jumping Jacks, Squats, Plyos, Jumping, and Running on spot. Every time they come to class they’re going to get a really good workout that’s going to keep them fit. Because they’re doing that, they’re going to start building habits, and they’re going to become more active, so they’re going to want to do other active things instead of just sitting at home playing video games. Martial arts is so much more physical, and it was just like video games too. Just like in video games kids play them because they want to beat the game and the level, right? Same thing, martial arts has the belts system, so there’s levels to winning that too. Slowly I noticed that my video game addiction totally disappeared once I started doing martial arts and making new friends.

Secret #2 They’re going to learn focus and stillness. So, as they go throughout their training, they’re going to keep hearing us always say commands like, “Lock it up,” which means they stand still and they show Focus. Focus your Eyes, Mind, and Body….that’s something that I repeat all the time in the classes. So the longer they train, their focus is going to improve as well.

Secret #3 They’re going to get hit and roll with the punches. So, what that means is they’re going to get used to falling down, failing, sometimes getting hit by accident, but they’re going to get used to coming back right away. So, if they fall down, they’re going to get up. If they’re going to get hit, they’re going to roll with the punches. And just like in life when things are going to happen outside, instead of just quitting and giving up, they’re going to roll with the punches and just going to keep coming back and not going to give up.

Secret #4 They’re going to learn Courage, Confidence, and Respect. Martial arts is something different than most other activities. When they step on the floor the first time, they’re going outside their comfort zone. As they keep progressing in martial arts, they’re going to keep stepping out of their comfort zone because it’s going to be different, there’s going to be breaking boards, there’s going to be doing self-defense, there’s going to be sparring. So, they’re going to really learn to play all out. And when they have something happening in life, instead of just thinking, “Oh, I don’t want to do that. I’m going to play it safe.” They’re going to try it, they’re going to learn from experiences.

Secret #5 They’re going to learn to connect their Mind, Body, and Spirit. So, what that means is, unlike organized sports, martial arts, because it’s by yourself, when you’re doing things you’re learning about yourself, you’re learning about your body. So, when I punch I can feel how that feels, I know how far I have to be. So, the more I train, I get used to how my body moves and reacts. Even reflexes, because of martial arts training my reflexes are fast, and so sometimes when I’m walking and if a little leaf in fall time falls down, I’ll move right away because I’m reacting faster than the average person. They’re also going to learn to overcome fear faster. So, when something happens where they got to make a decision, they’re not going to just sit there and freeze, they’re not going to be paralyzed. They’re going to right away make a quick decision, and they’re going to go either option A, option B. Secret

#6 They’re going to learn conflict resolution skills. So, what that means is they’re going to learn how to defuse scenarios using their words. So, even though we learn martial arts, we don’t want to use it unless it’s for self-defense. And most of the time you want to try to out think the person. So basically with martial arts, especially with bullying, our kids are going to learn tactics where they’re going to either talk to the bully or they’re going to tell someone, or they’re going to tackle the situation in a way where they don’t have to be the first one to throw the first punch.

And the last secret (#7) is, they’re going to learn to breathe properly. So, breathing obviously everybody knows, we do this all the time. But martial arts we actually have a way we breathe, and when we breathe, and that’s controls us. Because breathing controls everything, when you’re angry, when you’re scared, your breathing pattern changes. Because in martial arts that is everything we do is breathing, we’re going to be able to control our temperature. So, if we’re tired or we’re not feeling good or if we’re really angry, we can control our scenarios and before we think, before we do, we can think first and then we react, because of the breathing we’ve been learning.

 

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How to Bully Proof your Child

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Hey Parents,

I want to talk about being bullied at school.

It happened to me when I was in high school and I want to talk about how martial arts actually plays an important role in transforming your child from someone who may be a victim of bullying to someone who stands up to them and eventually becomes a leader with Confidence.

I remember when I was being bullied and stood up to the bully (which actually happened by accident because he tried to get me to arm wrestle him and I won) I had the athleticism in me, I just didn’t have the confidence.

After winning the arm wrestle they stopped bullying me and started to Respect me….maybe because I didn’t back down and took the challenge. If you want your child to be bully proof, I’m going to give you three quick ways…. In our studio here we teach talk, tell, and tackle.

The talk part is where we want our student to basically try to stop the bully by just talking. Like just say, “Hey, leave me alone, I’m not going to do this.” If that doesn’t work, then they go to phase two which is tell, so they’re going to tell someone, they can tell their parents or their schoolteacher. If that still doesn’t work and the bully’s still bothering them, then they have to tackle the situation. That doesn’t mean they have to fight, it just means they have to tackle. They have to stand their ground and decide, “Okay, I got to stop this now, or it’s going to keep happening forever.”

Most likely if they just stand their ground and say “NO!” the bullies are going to walk away because bullies really are just looking for an easy target. But if the bully does become physical with them then they will have no choice but to use their Martial Arts skills to protect themselves and also defuse the situation. The goal of martial arts is to defend ourselves, so we never throw the first punch.

So if you put your child in martial arts it’s a good stepping stone to building their confidence and leadership skills. As they move up throughout life the life skills they learn will go with them, and they’re always going to be able to stand their ground and protect themselves and protect other people who they care about.

 

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Why kids quit martial arts?

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Hey, parents. I want to talk to you about a subject about why kids quit martial arts. So, there’s a lot of reasons why it happens. But I also want to talk to you about how the systems we have in place at our studio here, how we figure that out and then what’s the best solution for the child to continue or not to continue.

So basically, there’s lots of different reasons why kids quit martial arts. It could be maybe something happened to them but they’re not telling you. Maybe they’re just getting bored when they’re doing the same thing over and over. Maybe they’re afraid of something, maybe they’re afraid of quitting, afraid of losing or not getting what they want. Maybe they want things easier. So, there’s a lot of reasons.

The main thing is we want to support the kids in what they do, but we also want to find out the reason, because sometimes if kids can learn the perseverance skillset, which is not to quit even if things are tough, it’s going to leverage them when they’re in college, university, to not give up when that gets hard, and in real-life when it gets hard, right?

So, it’s easier to take kids when there in something simple as an activity, and teach them not to quit, because that’s just… the pain threshold is not that much, it’s just an activity. It’s not like they’re coming and they’re getting hurt or anything, they’re just enjoying it, right?

So, what we do is we figure out different ways to do that, and we have really good retention systems where we send kids postcards in the mail, we do boosters. A booster is basically a one-on-one lesson we do which is for free, we do that any time someone needs our help

But basically we want to teach kids to push through and achieve their goal, because like I’ve said, when they go to university and then the real- world with a job, that’s going to be more impacted, because if you quit university, all that tuition you lost and also your education. If you quit in the real-life or if you’re like you don’t want to go to work, that could have an impact on your income. So, it’s better to teach children at a young age these life skills of not to give up and quit.

And like I say, here at Richmond Martial Arts we have a lot of different retention systems we do where it helps students to stay longer and learn that perseverance, so that when they do decide to move on they’ve achieved something either like… mostly a black belt.

A lot of our kids will at least achieve the black belt, and then that’s something they can put in their resumes, if they move on after that. We have a lot of students who joined us when they were like three years old, and then now they’re like 15, 16, 17, 18, and now they’re black belts but they’re also working at the studio.

Another great thing about martial arts, compared to other the activities is we have the belts system. And kids love achieving things like points or awards, that’s why video gaming is such a popular thing because they get to the next level. So, we have the same thing here in martial arts different levels in our belts, but we also have different programs where there might be a uniform first, and they can move to the black uniform.

It’s the same thing with me in my martial arts. My uniform started off with white, and then eventually my goal was to get to the fourth degree black belt, then I got the stripes. And now my next goal is to be a master and then get the double stripes.

So, things like that. It drives people, right? So, martial arts is great because the belts system allows them, so even if they are thinking, “Oh, maybe I don’t want to do, maybe I want to quit.” But then they know they’re only a month away to their next belt. When they get their belt they’re re-motivated again, and then this cycle starts again.

And a great thing too about the belts system, is it teaches the three types of goals settings. So, it’s the short-term goals, the mid-term goals, and the long-term goals. And that’s really important, because whatever you do in life you need short-term, mid-term, long-term goals to achieve anything.

Click the link below to watch the video version ⤵️

 

 

Chuck Norris can’t be Wrong

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Hey parents,

I want to talk about the quote Chuck Norris uses which is, “Putting your kids in karate is the best thing you can ever do.”

I myself believe that 100%.

I’m going to talk about my backstory a little bit.

When I was about a teenager, I would say my confidence is nowhere near as it became after doing martial arts. I was basically more of a follower than a leader, and I just followed my friends. And unfortunately, some of them were doing things that weren’t that good, right? So, basically they would get into trouble, and because I was more of a follower than a leader I would copy their bad choices.

But once I joined martial arts I realized what was more important to me and what I enjoyed. Slowly I started climbing the ladder to becoming a leader.

Now at this point in my life I run my own school and I have my big team of staff, who also I’m developing them as leaders as well. So definitely, I 100% love what I do, working with children.

We focus on working with children. We do have some adult programs too, but kids is our main thing here at Richmond Martial Arts. I love working with kids taking them from low confidence to becoming leaders. So many of our kids who started when they were like three or four years old, who are now like 15, 16, 17, 18, they’re now working for me as black belts here, I’m watching them become leaders.

So, definitely as a parent myself, talking to you parents, putting your kids in martial arts definitely, just like Chuck Norris says, karate is the best thing you can do for your child.

Click the link below to see the video version of this article ⤵️

 

Focus On the 1 Thing

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Bruce Lee’s famous quote has taught me to focus on one thing.

Bruce Lee has a famous quote where he says, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

I want to talk about how that relates to how we train here and what I believe how we could perfect their techniques better.

What Bruce Lee means in that quote is it’s good to have one thing down really good, really pat, before you move on to the next thing. So for example here is how it relates to kids…..when they come in they’re going to be really excited, they’re going go, “I want to learn the spin kick or the back kick or on the side kick.”

They want to learn so many kicks but the problem is they are only learning a little bit, and then they’re going to just kind of be a little bit good at everything. But if they want to be really good in their basics we got to make sure the foundation is good.

That means if we’re going to teach the front kick, we got to teach the front kick many times. And the problem is kids might get bored, they might not like that. So, that’s why it’s important that we do something called Disguised Repetition.

Disguised repetition is what we do here in the studio and is where we teach one technique but we teach it in a way where the kids don’t know it’s that same technique.

They’ll be thinking “Oh, this is a brand new drill, cool.” But actually it’s the same technique, we’re just disguising it with different ways to do it. Like maybe close your eyes, maybe face this way, maybe bring your knee up higher, maybe go down.

I believe that by using Bruce Lee’s quote and using disguised repetition we can have better quality students.

Click the link below to see the video version of this article 👇

 

Why I don’t use Push Ups as Punishment

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I want to talk about pushups and why I don’t want our students at a young age to think push ups are bad.

Back in our days when we were kids if you remember when we did something wrong like in gym class we would definitely be told to do pushups for not listening or goofing off.

But the thing is…..if you use pushups as punishment for kids then they are going to associate that as a bad thing and that will stay with them as teenagers and adults. Thats why its important pushups should not be used for punishment, they should be used to get better in health and fitness.

So, what I do is instead of using old-school tactics like pushups or yelling, or anything like that, I do a points system. It works really great, especially for kids between, I would say kids from like maybe say two to like maybe nine or ten, around there, it works really great.

So basically the process is very simple. If someone’s not listening or if someone’s doing something they’re not supposed to do, I’ll basically go, “Oh, you’re going to lose a point if you don’t do that.” Or, “Oh, you lost a point,” if they’re already done it. Okay? Kids love video games, they like challenges, points systems. So, I find this works really good.

The thing is just the delivery of how you do it. If you do it incorrectly they’re going to feel like, “What points?” Right? But the way I deliver and the way I do it and animation, all that, they don’t ask, they love it because I make it a challenge.

Because I’ll be like, “Oh, you lost a point. That’s a point, back in your spot.” And then they’ll go back in the spot right away because they don’t want to lose that point, right? If it’s really excessive I might even stand there and pretend like I’m writing on the mirror, and I’ll be like, “Oh, that’s a minus point right there.”

But I always, always, when I take points away, I always tell them how they can earn them back. So, I’ll go, “Okay if you just do good you can earn it back.”

But then if I want the kids or my full group to give me more energy. Say they did like 10 jumping jacks but they were like… I could tell the energy was low. I’ll be like, “Okay. Okay guys, who here wants five bonus points? Who wants them? Raise your hand.” And I’ll raise my hand first, so obviously they’re going to raise their hand too. So then I’ll be like, “Okay, if you guys can redo those 10 jumping jacks one more time with a bit more intensity and be more loud and make sure you count properly, I’ll give you five bonus points. Are you guys ready?” And then I’ll be like, “I want you guys to say, ‘Bring it on.'” And then they’ll be like, “Bring it on.” And then I’ll say, “Okay, go.” And then you’ll see the room will be lit up with energy like crazy.

The points system works beautifully. I love it, I do it all the time.

Click the link below to watch the video version of this article ⤵️

 

3 Ways to Show Focus

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So there’s three ways we show FOCUS to our kids here in the studio.

 

It’s focus your eyes, focus your mind, and focus your body. When we teach focus for the eyes, we teach children to look at the person who they’re speaking to and not to get distracted with other things that are going on. One way we do that is we have something we say to the kids, which is, “Eyes on.” When we say “eyes on”, they have to look at us and they have to point and say, “You, sir” or “You, ma’am.”

The second way to show FOCUS is with the mind.

So, what we teach kids is that when you’re listening, you want to listen with your ears, but you also want to remember and retain with your mind. So that means even though you’re listening, if you’re daydreaming about what you’re going to eat later or what cartoon show you’re going to watch, you’re actually not focusing because information is going in and it’s going out.

The third way to show focus is with the body. So, how we teach that to the children is we tell them that you want to stand really still, and you don’t want to be moving when you’re listening, because when you’re moving around you are distracting yourself and people around you. One of the exercises we like to do here is, especially the younger kids, is we do something called Focus Master where we are standing still…..and then I might say something like, “Okay, there’s a bee in the room flying around and if that bee lands on you, I want you to be so focused that you don’t even know that bee is there.”

To see the video version of this article click the link below ⤵️

 

What the Karate Kid Taught Me (Life Skills)

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Karate Kid is a very popular movie where Mr Miyagi mentors his student Daniel. When I watched this movie back when I was a kid I didn’t really understand it much.

I thought he used karate to beat up the bullies that were bothering him. As an adult now who runs a martial arts school, I totally get the movie and I understand that Mr Miyagi was teaching Daniel life lessons or “life skills”.

Life skills is the mental part of the martial arts, so it isn’t just physical. In our children’s program we teach something called the word of the month which are words like confidence, self-esteem, and leadership.

All the self defense moves like punches and kicks are not used everyday because it’s only for self defense….However life skills can be used in our everyday lives.

When kids are learning martial arts and learning new life skills, they’re actually applying all these techniques what they’re learning in real-life. And then the self-defense is just kind of like a backup. It’s basically something that’s going to build their self-esteem and their confidence. And if they’re in a bully situation, they’re so confident that they know they can handle themselves, they don’t even have to do anything, they can defeat the bully by using their words.

Click the link below to watch a video version of this blog ⤵️

How to get your child ready for their activity

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How to get your kids to do any activity in 15 minutes without you having to say it twice.

Hi, my name is Johnny Ahmed from Richmond Martial Arts. I wanted to share with you this quick tip that you could implement right away when it comes to getting your kids ready for some sort of activity, like either martial arts, dance, soccer, or swimming.

First thing I want to do is I want to talk about a memory that I have from elementary school. So back then in elementary school, my mom would come up to me and go, “Okay, it’s time to go for swimming lessons.” And I would fight and argue and say, “No, I don’t want to go, I want to stay right here.” Years later, I figured out why that was happening. It wasn’t that I didn’t like swimming, I actually love swimming now as an adult. It was because at that time I was watching a very famous cartoon show called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, some of you will know that show.

So, I was sitting on my couch comfortable watching that, and then I was always focused on that, so then when my mom obviously, “Come for swimming,” I would right away think, “Why do I want to go there? I’m doing this right now.”

So, the point of that story is it wasn’t that I didn’t like swimming lesson, it was just at that time I was focused on watching my Ninja Turtles and I was comfortable. My state of mind couldn’t break that I had to stop doing what I was doing, get in a car, drive all the way to the pool, then get inside, then change my clothes and jump in the cold pool.

So, here’s how you can avoid the same situation that happened with me any my mom, with your kids.

So, basically 15 minutes before you have to leave your house to go to the activity choose some sort of activity for them that they kind of dislike, so many cleaning their room, maybe washing the dishes. And just have them do that, just tell them I need that done. Okay?

And then they’re doing that, and then 15 minutes later when you know, okay, now this is the time you got to leave to get there on time to the activity, you’re simply going to just ask them, “Okay, so it’s time for your swimming lessons. Do you want to go to your swimming lessons or do you want to keep cleaning your room?”

So, mostly all kids are going to be like, “I’m just going to go swimming, I don’t want to clean my room.”

Hope you found that tip valuable… stay tuned for more posts like this.